4 month old tank with Dirty sandbed help!

[Kasey]

My tank is almost 5 months and the sandbed is getting a sludge on top. I take small sections when I do water changes but otherwise leave it alone. Should I siphon off the sludge? Be more aggressive in stirring? I’ve also been playing with flow to make sure the sandbed is getting irritation.

Livestock:

1 Turbo snail
3 Trochus snails
2 Astraea
4 Cerith
5 Nassarius
2 emerald crab
1 choc chip starfish
1 randalli shrimp
1 cleaner shrimp
1 peppermint shrimp
2 clowns
1 yellow watchman goby

I’ve got 20 pounds live rock, 30 dry. 20 pounds live sand, 20 pounds dry.

Temp: 77* F
SG: 1.026
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Calcium: 440
Magnesium: 1350
Alk: 8.1
pH: 7.98
Phosphate: 0
Copper: 0
Silicates: 0

 

[SPR1968]

The pictures not totally clear but it looks a little bit like maybe the start of cyno bacteria to me, but maybe we can get a bit more input

You have 0 nitrates which are really to low, a good target is around 5-10ppm

#reefsquad

 

[BellaCoop]

Did you use any kind of live bacteria to start up your cycle? Or what process did you use to get it started up?

 

[Kasey]

Here’s a couple shots that are better. I used Dr Tim’s ammonium chloride and nitrifying bacteria to cycle for about a month before I added the live rock.

 

[Ron Reefman]

It looks like the start of cyano bacteria outbreak to me as well. GENTLY try to siphon it off the sand and get a little more water movement at the sand.